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On the Weights of Nations

Assigning Voting Weights in a Heterogeneous Union

Bibliographic Data

ID10180686
AuthorsSalvador Barberà (0000-0001-6586-2398, Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona), Matthew O Jackson (0000-0001-9846-4249, California Institute of Technology)
Year2006
Volume114
Issue2
Pages317-339
Publication date2006-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Political Economy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3808 • E-ISSN: 1537-534X
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/501172
OpenAlexW2132523251
LanguageEN
Citations received30
References cited16

We study indirect democracy in which countries, states, or districts each elect a representative who later votes at a union level on their behalf. We show that the voting rule that maximizes the total expected utility of all agents in the union involves assigning a weight to each district's vote and then sticking with the status quo unless at least a threshold of weighted votes is cast for change. We analyze how the weights relate to the population size of a country and the correlation structure of agents' preferences, and then we compare the voting weights in the Council of the European Union under the Nice Treaty and the recently proposed Constitution

Constitution · Democracy · Economics · European union · International trade · Political science · Politics · Population · Public economics · Sociology · Status quo · Treaty · Voting · Demography · Economic Policies and Impacts · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Game Theory and Voting Systems · Law

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Unique citing works30
Citations per year1.5
Citation span2006 - 2026 (21)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 30

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